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Salinity gap-fill exercise

Fill in the missing words in the following passage and then check your answers from the list below.

Salinity is one of Australia’s greatest environmental challenges. The cost of lost agricultural production and damage to the ___________[1] is likely to climb above $1 billion a year.

Scientists also predict that thousands of Australia’s unique native plant species run a high risk of becoming _________[2] unless we can halt the spread of dryland __________[3].

Salinity is the presence of soluble salts in _________[4] or water. Salts are naturally found in ___________[5] and become a problem when the water table slowly rises toward the _________[6] surface. This occurs when more water enters the system from ___________[7] and irrigation than leaves the system through __________[8] or use by _________[9].

Changes in land management including removal of vegetation and over-watering have increased the salinity problem in some areas.

There are three common types of salinity:

• dryland salinity
• irrigation salinity
• urban salinity.

Management of salinity
To manage salinity, the amount of water entering the watertable must be _________[10] and the amount of water used from the watertable must be _________[11].

Actions that reduce the amount of water entering the watertable include:

• removing excess water from paddocks through the use of laser leveling and surface ____________[12]
• removing excess ____________[13] water through ground water pumping
• practicing _____________[14] water-use efficiency
• avoiding periods of _________[15] ground
• conservatively stocking.

Actions that increase the use of water from the watertable include:

• increasing the growth of deep-rooted vegetation such as __________[16] pastures
• introducing salt _________[17] fodder plants (salt bush) and agroforestry plantations
• improving health of existing ____________[18]
• increasing crop yield.
• growing high-water use _____________[19].
  

Answers to salinity gap-fill exercise

1. environment
2. extinct
3. salinity
4. soil
5. groundwater
6. soil
7. rainfall
8. evaporation
9. vegetation
10. reduced
11. increased
12. drains
13. subsurface
14. irrigation
15. bare
16. perennial
17. tolerant
18. vegetation
19. crops

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